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Blaqstarr - "Feel It In The Air"

I'm going to keep it 100 right now: as a black man living in America that's spent the two decades following electronic music, 2014 is looking like an interesting year. Fuck "Black History Month" for a second; it's always amazing to see the lack of color represented in the dance music scene, be it the DJs behind the decks or the faces propped up in the DJ Mag Top 100 list. We've been around for about 13 months, and seeing the genres of Jersey club and footwork, which originate in spaces that are filled with black people, has me feeling some type a way. If the tide's to change, I can truly feel it in the air.

That said, I applaud the fact that Blaqstarr's "Feel It In The Air," which is taken from his new EP The Blaq-Files, features city life in all of its glory. From parties that are going down in fire halls (or rec rooms) to the boarded-up city blocks, you get a peek at understanding the (real) life that many of these producers are living, and where this music is coming from, especially during the Baltimore club scene in the early 2000s. Tiesto can get put up in a Vegas palace for his year-and-a-half stay, but there are producers out there (of many colors, truthfully) who are running orange extension cords from the basement to their bedroom just to power their equipment... for the love of the music. I'm not saying the tide is totally changing - I'm a realist. But I do like seeing the light being shown on all sides of the electronic music scene - I'm a Libra.